Michael Gates's Blog, page 29
July 1, 2015
June 30, 2015
Story Cubes 3: Up All Night
"Why can't I get to sleep?" Evan thought. He'd tried everything, even counting sheep. Ever since he'd broken his ankle, he'd mostly been confined to the house, and the restlessness this induced just wouldn't leave him. "Might as well get up," he thought, grabbing his cane from where it hung on the bedpost. He was vaguely hungry, so he hobbled downstairs to the refrigerator and found an apple to munch on while he built a pyramid of sugar cubes on the kitchen table. Then he went to the living room, settled on the couch and began to doodle an abstract figure on his sketch pad.
Just as he was beginning to nod off, there was a knock on the front door. "At this time of night?" he thought. He shuffled over to peer through the keyhole. It was his prodigal brother, no doubt needing a place to stay again. He'd have another tearful tale to tell him, and Evan would have to decide how much of it was true. There would probably be a dust-up. So, an exhausting night of turbulent emotion ahead. At least in the morning, with luck, he'd be able to sleep.
Just as he was beginning to nod off, there was a knock on the front door. "At this time of night?" he thought. He shuffled over to peer through the keyhole. It was his prodigal brother, no doubt needing a place to stay again. He'd have another tearful tale to tell him, and Evan would have to decide how much of it was true. There would probably be a dust-up. So, an exhausting night of turbulent emotion ahead. At least in the morning, with luck, he'd be able to sleep.
June 29, 2015
Word of the Day: tohubohu
What's the word I'm thinking of? Today, it's....
tohubohu [TOE-hoo-BO-hoo] (noun) [TWITO, page 147]
Chaos, confusion
“....it is now easy to see that this bird is the Creator walking in chaos, brooding over the primitive mish-mash or tohu-bohu, and finally hatching the egg of the world.”
--Viktor Rydberg, Rasmus Björn Anderson, James William Buel, Teutonic Mythology (1907)
(photo by me)
tohubohu [TOE-hoo-BO-hoo] (noun) [TWITO, page 147]
Chaos, confusion
“....it is now easy to see that this bird is the Creator walking in chaos, brooding over the primitive mish-mash or tohu-bohu, and finally hatching the egg of the world.”
--Viktor Rydberg, Rasmus Björn Anderson, James William Buel, Teutonic Mythology (1907)
(photo by me)
June 28, 2015
Quote of the Day: Shakespeaere on Gay Marriage
Sonnet 116
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
--William Shakespeare
paraphrase and analysis
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no; it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests, and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
--William Shakespeare
paraphrase and analysis
June 25, 2015
Link Mania: Insulting twerking liars? Hm!
8 of the best 'new' words to make the latest English dictionary
"'Twerk' is not a new word; that's where people from Yorkshire go in the morning."
~~~
9 ways to call someone a 'liar'
Annoyed by far-fetched accounts of unlikely veracity? This list is for you.
~~~
11 Early 20th Century Insults We Should Bring Back
Names will never hurt me.
~~~
22 Two-Letter Words To Boost Your Scrabble Score
I et za today....
"'Twerk' is not a new word; that's where people from Yorkshire go in the morning."
~~~
9 ways to call someone a 'liar'
Annoyed by far-fetched accounts of unlikely veracity? This list is for you.
~~~
11 Early 20th Century Insults We Should Bring Back
Names will never hurt me.
~~~
22 Two-Letter Words To Boost Your Scrabble Score
I et za today....
June 24, 2015
Random Sequence: asseveration explanation
"She gave Marie a full account of her father's unflattering portrait of Miss Dupont's supposed betrothed; the predictions of ruin in store for him and for her, if she married him, dwelling longest upon the asseveration that he would horsewhip Lorraine if he ever presumed to lift his eyes to one of his daughters."
--"Nobody to Blame" by Marion Harland, in Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine, April 1864
(I found a bound copy of several issues of Godey's in my basement and have been flipping through the dusty pages.)
asseveration (noun) = an earnest, solemn, or emphatic declaration
I guess whenever you're talking about "horsewhipping" someone, you're always making an asseveration.
--"Nobody to Blame" by Marion Harland, in Godey's Lady's Book and Magazine, April 1864
(I found a bound copy of several issues of Godey's in my basement and have been flipping through the dusty pages.)
asseveration (noun) = an earnest, solemn, or emphatic declaration
I guess whenever you're talking about "horsewhipping" someone, you're always making an asseveration.
June 18, 2015
Photo of the Week: Chimera (by me)
Click the pic for a close-up look -- if you dare.
June 17, 2015
Story Cubes 2: The Breeze
Owen felt like a turtle in a shell. He'd been staying in his apartment for far too long, but tonight he was still too paranoid to leave the building. What he could do, he decided, was to borrow a key from the maintenance man and climb the stairs to the roof.
The key seemed to stick in the rusty padlock's keyhole at first -- a metaphor for the dead end he'd reached, Owen thought. But then the lock unclicked and Owen was breathing fresh air at last. He looked down over the roof's edge at the treetops below. He looked up at the stars and the sleepy-faced moon. The lighted windows of the buildings across the street formed random zigzag patterns, like a crazy, electrified abacus.
Jump? he thought. Not tonight. Not while the breeze felt so tender against his skin.
The key seemed to stick in the rusty padlock's keyhole at first -- a metaphor for the dead end he'd reached, Owen thought. But then the lock unclicked and Owen was breathing fresh air at last. He looked down over the roof's edge at the treetops below. He looked up at the stars and the sleepy-faced moon. The lighted windows of the buildings across the street formed random zigzag patterns, like a crazy, electrified abacus.
Jump? he thought. Not tonight. Not while the breeze felt so tender against his skin.
June 16, 2015
Word of the Day: truttaceus
What's "the word I'm thinking of"? Today, it's....
truttaceus [troo-TAY-shuss] (adjective) [TWITO, page 149]
Pertaining to or like a trout
"....crowded with the boats of paradise, we would fancy parades and serenades mid its roral gales, lepid glens and truttaceus charms...."
--Anonymous, in The New Rugbeian (1859)
A "chub" and a catfish -- those are the only types of fish I ever caught. And I threw them back. That's the kind of guy I am.
(photo by me)
truttaceus [troo-TAY-shuss] (adjective) [TWITO, page 149]
Pertaining to or like a trout
"....crowded with the boats of paradise, we would fancy parades and serenades mid its roral gales, lepid glens and truttaceus charms...."
--Anonymous, in The New Rugbeian (1859)
A "chub" and a catfish -- those are the only types of fish I ever caught. And I threw them back. That's the kind of guy I am.
(photo by me)
